The invention relates to a subcaliber kinetic energy projectile having a penetrator which has a cylindrical portion adjoined by a conical frontal portion that forms the projectile tip. The invention further relates to a method of making such a kinetic energy projectile.
Frequently, in front and on the sides of armored vehicles the armor is at a substantial inclination to the vertical to cause the armor-piercing kinetic energy projectiles to glance off the hard armor plates upon impacting.
It is generally known to provide the front end of kinetic energy projectiles which, as a rule, are made of tungsten heavy metal, with a "biting edge" for preventing the projectile from sliding off the inclined armored plates. Since the flight behavior of the projectile must not be adversely affected by the biting edge, the known projectiles have in front a hood-like aluminum tip (ballistic hood) which is pressed or screwed on the penetrator body (also referred to as the penetrator core).
It is a disadvantage of such known kinetic energy projectiles that in the region where the penetrator core is connected with the ballistic hood, the penetrator core must have a smaller diameter with respect to its remaining zones to ensure that the ballistic hood, when in place, has the predetermined caliber of the projectile. It was found that particularly in small or mid-caliber armor-piercing ammunition as used in automatic guns these known connecting modes of the projectile tip and the penetrator core do not yield an optimal biting and penetrating behavior of the projectile in case of significantly inclined armor. Such a phenomenon may be, among others, derived from the fact that the frontal, stub-shaped region of the penetrator often breaks off upon impacting and the subsequent (rearward) penetrator region no longer impinges in a defined manner on the surface of the armor.
Further, in the known kinetic energy projectiles a relatively high technological input is required for attaching and centering the hood-like aluminum tip because appropriate threads must be cut or expensive fittings have to be resorted to.
It is known from German Offenlegungsschrift (application published without examination) No. 32 42 591 to secure a projectile tip, made of a high proportion of tungsten, to the penetrator core by hard soldering or diffusion sintering. When using such a securing process to attach an aluminum projectile tip to a tungsten heavy metal penetrator core, it was found that because of the formation of heat zones the penetrator core undergoes microstructural changes in the connecting region. As a result, the penetrator breaks relatively easily in the connecting region with the projectile tip upon impacting on an inclined armored plate, and consequently, an undefined biting behavior of the penetrator core will occur.
German Offenlegungsschrift 39 19 172 discloses a kinetic energy projectile having a penetrator in which instead of a frontal ballistic hood inserted on the penetrator core, a protective coat having a projectile tip is provided which encloses the entire penetrator core. The manufacture of such a projectile, however, involves an extraordinarily high technological input.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 41 41 560 describes a kinetic energy projectile having a penetrator in which the penetrator core is connected by means of a frictional weld with a rearwardly disposed aluminum guide body. In this conventional structure too, the projectile tip is connected with the penetrator core by means of a stub-like extension thereof. Upon impingement on an inclined armor plate, the penetrator core is very likely to break in the frontal connecting region and would therefore have a non-reproducible biting and penetrating behavior.